Browsing by Subject "code-switching"

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    Code-Switching among Bilingual Speakers of Cape Muslim Afrikaans and South African English in the Bo-Kaap, Cape Town
    (2020) Cozien, Christine; Mesthrie, Rajend
    The Bo-Kaap is traditionally a Cape Muslim Afrikaans-speaking community, and sociohistorically it is particularly relevant to the development of Afrikaans at the Cape (Davids 2011, Mahida 1993). The Cape Muslim Afrikaans spoken in the Bo-Kaap is a sub-variety of Standard Afrikaans (Kotzé 1989, Davids 2011) and is distinguishable by its retained lexis (Mesthrie and Bhatt 2008) from languages historically spoken by slaves at the Cape, such as Malay, Arabic, Gujarati, and Konkani. Over time a number of socio-cultural, geographic, and historical factors have introduced the use of South African English alongside Cape Muslim Afrikaans in this speech community. The goal of this study was to provide insight into the nature of bilingual talk in the Bo-Kaap community, and to make a useful contribution to the growing body of codeswitching1 (hereafter CS) research generally. Based on natural language data collected during group interviews with members of the community, the study explored the language contact situation in the Bo-Kaap today, taking the viewpoint that what is occurring presently may be considered CS Three aspects of the CS documented were analysed and quantified. Specifically, the study investigated language interaction phenomena (Myers-Scotton 1995, Deuchar et al 2007) triggers (Clyne 1987) and directionality (Muysken 1997, Deuchar et al 2017, Çetinoglu 2017). A quantitative approach was taken to the data analysis. The interview audio files were downloaded and transcribed in ELAN. (Max Planck Institute). The annotations2 produced in ELAN were organised in a spreadsheet for analysis, resulting in a data set comprised of 356 annotations. The full data set was divided into subsets and tagged for language interaction phenomena, triggers, and directionality. These data sets were then sorted and quantified to identify trends in these three areas of interest. The study found Intra-sentential switches to be the most common type of language interaction phenomenon in the CS of this speech community, being present in 79% of the sampled annotations. Results from other CS studies echo this finding in other speech communities (Al Heeti et al 2016, Koban 2012, Falk 2013). The most common trigger for Intra-word switching in this corpus was in the head of the past tense Verb Phrase. Out of 27 occurrences of Intra-word switching, 16 were of this nature. In all of those an English verb head was housed within an Afrikaans past tense structure. No exceptions were observed in the data set, a strong indicator of the relationship status of the two languages involved. Cape Muslim Afrikaans almost certainly playing the role of the Matrix language, with South African English embedded. In terms of directionality, switching from Cape Muslim Afrikaans into South African English was by far the most common, at 85%. This further supports what the findings on triggers suggest about the hierarchy between these two languages.
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    Code-switching, Structural change and Convergence: A study of Sesotho in contact with English in Lesotho
    (2019) Semethe, Mpho Maboitumelo; Mesthrie, Rajend; Bowerman, Sean
    This study investigates whether code-switching practices among Sesotho-English bilinguals promote convergence between Sesotho and English. First, the study identifies different types and patterns of code-switching between Sesotho and English and analyses them using Myers-Scotton’s (1993) Matrix Language Frame model and Myers-Scotton and Jake’s (2000) 4-M model. Second, it applies the ML turnover in order to detect convergence in Sesotho-English code-switching data and to observe which direction it takes. The study also explores other factors contributing to change in the structure of Sesotho, which are not necessarily influenced by convergence. In conducting this study, data was collected through interviews that were held with younger bilingual speakers from different tertiary institutions in and around Maseru (Lesotho) and through recorded youth-centred phone-in radio programmes. Findings from the analysis of data reveal simple to complex Sesotho-English code-switching performance of various types and strategies. Findings also show through the existence of composite language in Sesotho-English code-switching that there is a turnover in the ML, which indicates a development of an asymmetrical convergence between Sesotho and English. It was also discovered that, although other changes in the Sesotho structure are not English influenced, they are enhanced mostly by younger urban bilingual speakers’ frequent “looser” approach to Sesotho. This is an indication that Sesotho’s susceptibility to change correlates strongly with age; that is, both the length of time contact between Sesotho and English has existed, and the generation in which change is mostly found. This thesis adds and documents a different perspective to the previously recorded changes on Sesotho-English contact in Lesotho.
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    The influence of social media marketing on the rise of emerging African Language repertoires in South African digital communication
    (2025) Mokgesi-Selinga, Masabata; Hall, Martin
    The multilingual South African landscape is represented by the country's twelve official languages, of which nine are African languages. This landscape presents an opportunity for brands to foster inclusive communication with and amongst diverse communities. As global communication increasingly becomes digitalised, social media is rapidly growing as an easily accessible communication platform for social engagements and digital marketing. This study aimed to analyse how African language speakers communicate with and about local brands on social media platforms to identify emerging social media trends and marketing opportunities using African languages when engaging with South African consumers. The research case study primarily observed the interaction between four proudly South African brands and the brands' “followers” on three social media platforms. The four brands were selected for being top-performing African brands that play a significant role in driving the continent's economic growth. The said brands have also enhanced their digital communication, resulting in stronger consumer engagement. The qualitative data was collected through screenshots of social media posts by the brands and their followers. For data integrity and analysis, the screenshots were converted into verbatim texts. Core findings indicate that social media platforms, particularly Twitter—rebranded as “X” —, are the quickest way to initiate and broadcast new African language repertoires. The social media platforms of four brands were included in this study: two food brands and two financial brands. The chicken-based food outlets, Nando's SA and Chicken Licken SA, went out of their way to celebrate the linguistic, cultural and social diversity of their followers by embracing new language repertoires, code-switching, and interacting with a great sense of humour. Meanwhile, the financial brands, Capitec and OUTsurance, did not communicate with followers in African languages, and their shortcoming was that they forfeited broader consumer engagement. This study illustrated that brands that engage consumers with familiar social jargon, such as emerging African language repertoires, have the potential to maximise their marketing opportunities, as observed from the social media marketing of Chicken Licken SA and Nando's SA.